3 weeks later.

Life with Merle was definitely a change of pace from what I'm used to. Even though he has that default glare on his face almost all the time, he was a pretty optimistic person. Though he's a pain in the ass, like all the time, there was something about him that seemed so appealing. Maybe it was his outlook on the whole situation, or maybe it's because his personality reminded me of Troy. Either way, being with Merle was a hell of a lot better than being alone; that I was sure of. I never thought of the idea that there where others out there, beside maybe Merle's old group. But then again I thought that before I even met the redneck I had grown to like so much, but all of that changed, one fateful day.

It was the middle of an afternoon, and Merle and I were walking down the street to some town I've never seen before, though then again, the only place I'd been to at that point was Atlanta. Merle must have seen that look in my face because when I looked at him he had a smirk on his face. "You're not from Georgia, are ya?" he asked in a smug tone. "Well, if you must know, I'm from California originally." I said while rolling my eyes at the unusual question. "No wonder you've managed to get us lost all this time." Merle said condescendingly.

I stopped walking and glared at him, I may have warmed up to him, but that doesn't mean I have to like his criticism. When he realized I had stopped walking he turned around. "Well I don't see you doing anything to help with my lack of direction." I said irritably. "oh not this bullshit again, every time you manage to get us lost or you get frustrated, you go and say I don't contribute!" Merle yelled waving his knife-hand around. Yeah, I felt sorry for his only-got-one-hand ass and found him a fiberglass mold of what looked like a cast when I looked into a metal shop maybe a week before that. When I found it I welded some steel on it and strapped on a bayonet that I found during a run that we went on. I thought I would do a little nice in this world but apparently, as it usually does, it came back to bite me in the ass.

I just stood there, furious at the man and when he turned around to start walking again I grabbed his arm and turned him around. "Well it would be nice if you did help me once in a fucking while!" I said in a calm, but angry tone. He glared at me and just when I thought he was about to hit me I saw something that made me forget about how pissed off I was at Merle. "Whoa what is that?" I asked in amazement. I grabbed Merle's wrist and ushered him into the direction that I was looking at. When he saw what I was looking at he opened his eyes wide in astonishment in the same fashion I was. What we saw were two walkers, in dog collars tied to the front porch of a store of some sort.

Me and Merle walked over to the walkers slowly… well I did, I think he just followed. When we got directly in front of them they started to growl and tried to staggered towards us but the chains where keeping them back. I heard Merle cocking his gun next and I looked at him from over my shoulder. "What are you doing?" I asked as I turned to look at him directly. "Ain't we gonna kill 'em?" Merle asked with his eyebrow raised, and speaking in his usual presumptuous Southern tone. "Well if they where a threat I would say yes, but they aren't harming anything." I said as I paced in front of them, as they tried to lunge at me half heartedly but failed due to the collars that were around their necks. "Well they're a fuckin' eye sore, why keep 'em?" he asked. "Well it's not like they can do anything; their arms are chopped off so they can't grab anything, and their jaws are broken off so they can't bite anyone." I said as I waved my hand dangerously close to the walker on the lefts face. "It's like their docile." I finished as I slowly put my hand down back to my side.

Merle was silent for a moment and I exhaled out loud. "It means calm." I said as-matter-of-factly. But all I got is a glare in return. "I know what docile means Zach! Let me show you how docile they can be!" he said as he pushed me aside as he held his gun in his hand with no intend of putting it away. All I did was glare, I don't know why, but I hated it when people didn't use my full name, don't know why it's just a thing wired into my brain. Merle knew it too, that's why "Zach" or "Zachy" was Merle's pet names for me. That or either "girlie" or "Spic" because he thinks I'm Mexican. He raised his gun up to one of the walkers' head when all of a sudden a sword point was at his throat. "Very funny Zach, but I ain't moving from my decision." Merle said with a smirk on his face. "Uh… Merle? I'm behind you remember?" I said as I reached for my own sword.

He looked to his left as I gained my spot next to him and we both saw an African American woman holding a katana at Merles throat. She had dread locked hair and a Native American looking bandana tied to her hairline. She was wearing bloodstained clothes and the sheath for her sword was strapped to her back like mine was. She had an evil look in her eyes that made me and Merle both flinch, I mean; I knew that we both had some decent glares but this chicks, wow. She wasn't glaring so much to me as she did Merle, guessing because he was the one holding the gun to her walkers' heads, or so I thought. "Um... we aren't looking for any trouble, we were just passing by." I said letting my hand slowly leave the hilt of my sword and fall back to my side. "Your friend coulda fooled me." She said in a deep, rich voice. But with no attempt to lower the sword from Merle's throat. "Oh you mean Merle? No, he meant no harm, r-right Merle?" I asked meekly, trying to make peace and avoiding conflict, but seeing that I was epically failing in doing so. "Like I'm gonna take shit from a nigga." He barked angrily at the woman next to him. "Um… I don't think you're in the position to make a statement like that." I said.

Now I was thinking; holy shit this dudes gonna die but instead of being angry at the racial slur directed at her, all I heard from the woman was a scoff. "Merle? Christ I wouldn't name a dog Merle." She said easily. Right when Merle was about to counter with something else, my left eye started to twitch. I looked sharply to my left and I saw something in the distance. We all froze in our tracks. Up in the horizon was the sound of a car engine, now I'm not the one to trust new people, this woman made that pretty clear, but these guys defiantly made my mind scream run. "Guys? Can we wrap this up?" I asked as I pulled out my sword from its sheath. The black chick removed the blade point from Merle's neck and turned around. When the cars pulled up and from the SUV in the middle, two guys stepped out, one was old looking with a machine gun at his side, and the younger one… well… I don't know how to explain him, but he was one white cat, all white clothes, and an eye patch away from looking like one of those villains that you'd see in those James Bond movies.

The old looking guy was glaring at our direction, but the other guy was glaring right at Merle, but then I quickly realized he was glaring at the woman that was next to Merle, like those two already had a history. See? It doesn't take me long to figure stuff out without asking questions. "Are you together?" the younger guy of the two asked, with a deep southern accent, not like Merle's though, it was a bit classier than that. Now my original intention was to say; no it's just me and him. But something stopped me, it was that little goddamn voice that told me to go find, then save Merle. What did that get me? Just an obnoxious headache. "Well?" the guy asked again. I saw Merle about to speak up, so I acted fast and said the first thing that came to my mind. "Yeah, she's with us." I said. Both Merle and the black woman looked at me. The woman looked at me questionably, like she was unsure of my intensions, and Merle looked at me with a flash of anger in his eyes, but I just ignored him. "Well, well, well you do have people skills, huh Michonne?" the younger guy said with a little amusement in his voice.

Michonne? I thought. That must have been her name, but I tried my best not to look surprised. "I see you still have your pets, huh?" he said. As he waved his own gun at the walkers in chains. "Fuck you." Michonne said angrily. Me and Merle were just watching them go back and forth, it was like watching tennis. "Well, we'd love to stick around, but we have things to do. Boys take care of them." The younger man said "come Lance." He said to the older man. They both went back into the SUV and drove away in the direction from where they came from. This left about eleven of his goons with us, all of them heavily armed. "Okay, we don't need to fight, okay? We can just talk about this." I said easily and calmly. But when I saw that they weren't looking to reason I took the element of surprise into my advantage and sliced three of the men's heads off, and when I slit another's throat I felt something push me to the ground and before that I heard a gunshot.

The others sprung into action, Merle shot two of them before they got him to his knees at gun point, and Michonne killed three by stabbing them in the stomach, from what I saw they killed those walkers that she had but eventually they got her at the same position as they had Merle. They stopped focusing at me because they thought I was dead, but little did they know I was wearing a bullet proof vest. Yeah I found it when we were going through a police station. I took it even though I had to bear through Merle's taunting, but it did prove wonders later down the road. I stood up and finished off the final two that remained. I helped Merle and Michonne up to their feet and gave Merle his gun from the ground. All he did was glare at me though, so I had a feeling that he was thinking that the fact we got attacked was my fault.

"Thanks." Michonne said as she got her bag from the porch then turned into the opposite direction. "Yeah, see ya." Merle said, still pissed off at the young black woman for holding him at sword point. "Well you could come with us." I suggested, but all I got was a questionable look from Michonne, and a very dangerous looking angry glare from Merle. "A word?" Merle asked as he grabbed my arm and led me a few feet away from Michonne. "Are you fuckin' crazy?!" Merle asked his voice tight and controlled with anger. "You and I travel around with each other, what's the difference if we have Michonne around?!" I asked, trying to get him to listen to reason. "We for starters, I don't like her, and obviously if we have her around, we have those assholes to worry about." Merle said insolently. "Me and you didn't like each other in the beginning, look at us now, we moderately like each other. Also we could use the extra man power." I said reasonably. "I can also see that you guys have no idea where you're going." Michonne said loud enough for the two of us can here. "How did you know what we were talking about?" I asked cautiously. "You guys didn't move too far out of ear shot." She said lightly.

"No thanks. Einstein over here may get us lost but we don't need ya help." Merle said condescendingly. I glared at him, and I was about to say something but then my face started spazing out and when everyone got quiet I heard those raspy growls and moans. So I had to get everyone away from there, even if I would never hear the end of it from Merle. "Um, guys? I'd love to continue this conversation but due to the gunshots that have just been fired I think we have to get out of here before every walker from a ten mile radius come here and eat us like a fat kid eats a Twix." I said nervously, darting my eyes from side to side to make sure we were still alone. Both Merle and Michonne got the message and all three of us got our stuff and left the front of the store front.

I am really sorry that this update is late, my step dad wants me to "go out more" but i really dont want to. and introducing Michonne! i think im portraying her the right way but if you guys think i can do better tell me. also i had the thought of first introducing The Govener and his merry men. favorites, reviews, and follows are appreciated and ill try to update better than i have been. thannks for reading and nxt chapter is coming up soon. ^_^